Posts from — October 2009

Supercat!

Varoooom!

[Editor: This is KT-3 and she assumes this “posture” a lot. Cats are weird.]

Friday Ark

The BBC reports that Fossil finds extend human story

An ancient human-like creature that may be a direct ancestor to our species has been described by researchers.

The assessment of the 4.4-million-year-old animal called Ardipithecus ramidus is reported in the journal Science.

Even if it is not on the direct line to us, it offers new insights into how we evolved from the common ancestor we share with chimps, the team says.

The headline should include “may” as it isn’t accepted yet that “Ardi” is a direct ancestor, she may be a cousin in part of the family that moved away early on.

This find is really interesting in light of the environment in which Ardi lived, woodlands, while most assumed hominids switched to bipedal walking on the savannas.

After hundreds died in the flooding from Typhoon Ketsana a week ago, the Philippines is now faced with Super Typhoon Parma striking in the same area. Ketsana was a strong tropical storm in the Philippines, but Parma looks like it will have category 4 strength when in comes ashore on Luzon.

While the Atlantic season has been mild so far, the Western Pacific has been much more active.

The death toll from the Samoan tsunami is about 150, but they have just started looking off shore, and hundreds are still missing. Australia alone is trying to trace 100 citizens.

The death toll in the Sumatran earthquake is at least 1,100, and it is expected to climb as more collapsed structures are searched. Many structures damaged by the 7.9 initial quake collapse during the 6.8 aftershock a day later.

Someone did something somewhere and I have been off-line since just before midnight last night.

They told me they were aware of the problem and estimated that I would be back up sometime tomorrow.

Having managed to repair the problem in 16 hours, I’m sure they expect a cookie. Given what they charge, I expect a refund. Both of us will be disappointed.